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Cañon City School Board to look at ways to meet district's vision

Committee to present recommendations to the school board on Monday

By CARIE CANTERBURY canterburyc@cañoncitydailyrecord.com

Posted:
11/23/2012 09:06:46 PM MST

A committee that was formed in August to take a look at Cañon City School District's three- to five-year vision and make recommendations on how to make that vision happen is prepared to give its report to the Board of Education on Monday.

During the last few months, the committee, comprised of individuals from within the district, city council, the school board, administration, businessmen and retired community leaders, identified obstacles that stand in the way of the district accomplishing its vision -"to develop compassionate, responsible, independent and productive citizens through a quality education for students, provided in a safe environment for students and staff."

The main obstacle, said Superintendent Dr. Robin Gooldy, is financial.

"Either not enough money or money needing to be reprioritized," he said. "From those obstacles, then they asked the question 'What strategies can we put in place to either overcome or eliminate these obstacles.'"

Some of the strategies the committee will recommend are - in no particular order - ways to bring more students into the district, either through a GED program, offering the online school to elementary students or expanding the online curriculum to advanced placement classes; a multi-track diploma program to offer more advanced educational offerings for high school students planing on attending college; strengthened vocational offerings; and a four-day school week.

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An online survey was offered to the community in September to gather feedback for the committee to consider, such as the possibility of a four-day school week and what programs the community feels are important for students. The survey fielded 658 responses from parents, teachers, community members, other school employees and students.

"From the survey it appeared that there was adequate support for the four-day week," Gooldy said. "I think there's still a lot of details that would need to be worked out and one of the questions we would have is how much money is that really going to save and is the savings worth whatever problems it might create."

Gooldy said he is concerned about the care elementary students would require if parents work or are not home on that off day.

"Will that mean it will be an additional expense for parents to find daycare arrangements?" he said. "That's a concern."

The committee also will recommend that the board look for further school consolidations or closings.

"I think what we're going to have to do is look and see what our options are and if there is a way to close a school and still be able to serve the kids in the way they need to be served," Gooldy said. "I think it's a little difficult to do, but we will at least take a look at it."

Partnering with the City, the County and the Florence-Penrose School District to offer joint services will be considered, as well as a possible tax initiative.

"One of the things that we'll be discussing this spring is whether or not to put a mill-levy override on the ballot in November," Gooldy said. "The good thing about a mill-levy override is that the money that is generated stays local, it doesn't go to Denver to be redistributed to other school districts."

The public survey revealed that about 70 percent of respondents were in favor of a tax initiative. The district will continue to seek grants and recruit volunteers to help reduce school expenditures and increase revenues.

With an enrollment of about 3,604 FTE students compared to 3,730 in 2011, the district is down 693 students from 2002. In the past four years, the district already has cut nearly $4 million from its budget, eliminated 22 jobs in 2010 and has lost $570 per student in funding.

Also during Monday's meeting, the board will vote on listing the former Garden Park High School building and the former Madison School building for sale and the board will hear about efforts to improve student achievement at McKinley Elementary School.

The board meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the District Administration building, 101 N. 14th St.

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